Any team or any player winning a title in the Major Leagues can tell you how difficult it is to reach the pinnacle. Very few can tell you what it’s like to stay there, year after year. Exhibit A these days is the pinnacle of all pinnacles — the World Series.

Iconic broadcaster Jerry Coleman passed away on Sunday, the team announced in a release. He was 89.

Iconic broadcaster Jerry Coleman passed away on Sunday, the team announced in a release. He was 89.

Baseball will be going from a year in which no one was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for only the third time since 1961, to the possibility four players could be voted in for the first time since ’55.

Blue Jays bullpen coach Pat Hentgen has been re-assigned within the organization to allow him the time needed to support his family and his father’s health issues.

Two-time World Series champion Aubrey Huff has officially retired from baseball and will pursue a career in broadcasting with Pac-12 Networks, he told MLB Daily Dish.

The Padres have signed 33-year-old infielder Brooks Conrad to a Minor League deal, though it does not include an invite to Major League Spring Training.

Twins prospect Eddie Rosario has been handed a 50-game suspension without pay for a second violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

This may be the post-holiday season when some gift shoppers have buyer’s remorse for spending too much and getting too little. For the Reds’ scouting and development system, Christmas already came in June during the First-Year Player Draft. After what the Reds saw from their first 2013 first-round Draft pick last summer, Phillip Ervin, there was certainly no hint of buyer’s remorse. They like their guy even more.

Fifteen of the organization’s top prospects, including Joc Pederson and Zach Lee, will be brought to Los Angeles next week for the Dodgers’ seventh annual Winter Development Program.

James Loney’s three-year deal to stay in Tampa Bay and Quintin Berry’s Minor League contract with Baltimore kick off the Hot Stove action for Friday.

The Orioles signed outfielder Quintin Berry to a Minor League contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, the club announced Friday.

James Loney enjoyed his season with the Rays, and the Rays liked what the veteran first baseman brought to the team. Those mutual good vibes led to a three-year, $21 million deal to keep Loney in the Rays’ infield.

A group of Arizona school children received early holiday presents from the Royals, who transformed some ballplayers into Santa’s elves last month at the team’s Spring Training complex.

The movement of Reds offseason activity has become about as frozen as the near zero-degree temperatures expected in the region.

After former Orioles great Paul Blair died suddenly last week, a couple of thoughts kept churning in my head as I read about his career: He was even better than I remembered, and why didn’t those Baltimore teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s win more World Series championships? Actually, I had another thought: Which teams of today will rank as those old Orioles teams of tomorrow?

The Rangers’ Opening Day lineup could have players representing eight World Baseball Classic countries, representing a massive change from Jon Daniels’ first year as general manager in 2006.